A tape feeder is known as a unit, which supplies electronic components, of a component mounting device. The tape feeder supplies electronic components to a pick-up position where the electronic component is picked up by a transfer head of a component mounting mechanism by intermittently feeding a carrier tape that holds electronic components. While the upper portion of the carrier tape is covered with a cover tape and the carrier tape is guided along a tape travel path formed in a body portion of the tape feeder in the vicinity of the pick-up position, the carrier tape is pitch-fed by a tape feed mechanism. Further, the electronic components are picked up at the pick-up position through a component take-out opening portion, which is formed at the tape guide, by the transfer head of the component mounting mechanism.
The carrier tape, which holds the electronic components, is supplied generally while being wound on a supply reel. When a new carrier tape is to be mounted, the carrier tape drawn out from the supply reel is inserted from a tape insertion portion and is subjected to a tape mounting work setting the carrier tape on the lower surface of the cover member at the pick-up position. This tape mounting work requires a complicated operation that sets the carrier tape on the body portion by pressing the carrier tape against the tape travel path from above by a pressing member while feed holes of the carrier tape are correctly engaged with feed pins of a sprocket of the tape feed mechanism.
For this reason, in the past, in order to make the tape mounting work easily, there has been known a tape feeder having the configuration where a tape guide guiding a carrier tape is detachably mounted on the body portion in the vicinity of the pick-up position and is provided with separating members partially separating a cover tape from the carrier tape (for example, see PTL 1). According to this configuration, it is possible to set the carrier tape on the tape guide when the tape guide is detached from the body portion. Accordingly, there is an advantage that the workability of a tape mounting work can be improved.